ROCK çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff ¾- SYMPHONY ROCK FOR BEGINNERS - ²---------------------------------- ¹ What's symphony rock? The answer could be made very long and complicated, but roughly it can be described like this: A complex and well arranged kind of rock music, where each musician/instrument is an indispensable piece of the entirety. No instrument is degraded as a "rhytm instrument" during a melody, but every instrumental efforts work intimately together in the building of a music piece. The line up in a symphony rock band is usually guitar (electric and acoustic), keyboard, bass guitar, drums and vocals. This is often completed with flutes and saxophones. So the symphony rock can not be compared with symphony orchestras. The great difference between symphony rock and "ordinary" rock are the music shapes. Symphonic rock consists of themes, melodies and instrumental parts, wowen together into long music pieces, sometimes divided into several "movements" with subtitles. The songs, or the music pieces, are very emotional and powerful and require a certain amount of engagement by the listener. The traditional verse-chorus structure is nearly banned. Another important difference is the live performances. It's a part of the rules of symphony rock to give the audience more than just a bunch of songs. Therefore, a well organised lightshow is included aswell as ¶çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff¹dramatic stagings, with the singer as the actor and props relating to the texts. The symphony rock developed in England at the end of the sixties as a reaction against the banal pop music. The apprehension that the popmusic had stagnated became more and more widespread, not least among musicians. Pop singles dominated the charts entirely, and the chances for rock bands to be seen in programs such as "Top of the Pops" were nonexistant. The established musical expressions became frustrating for the new generation of musicians whose technical skills by far exceeded the chord-fixated predecessors. Talents that had finished their education at music schools had no choice but to earn their money by playing the chords behind singers, without any possibilities of developing their own personal musicality. Against this background, one can see the symphony rock as an alternative activity: It gave the previous "chord musicians" a chance to appear in the limelight. The symphony rock became the music of the musicians. The first groups made their breakthrough around 1970, a breakthrough that involved that record companies and critics became interested in the new ideas - several years would pass before the commercial success was to come. The first years were tough for the bands, who had to live on a minimum of existance. All ¶çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff¹income from records and gigs was invested in new equipment for the stageshows and for developing technical effects. During these years, the groups became cult bands, eagerly supported by devoted fans. Soon enough the success came, and the symphonic bands started to climb the charts. The most successful of these bands were Genesis and Yes. Genesis were famous because of their spectacular stageshows, where singer Peter Gabriel performed dressed in flower- and foxmasks; as The Old Man and as Britannia. The shows reached their climax with "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (1974) - the dreamlike tale about the Puertorican Rael and his "adventures" in New York City. Later the same year Gabriel left the group, and Genesis started to develop their lightshow into one of the best in the world. Yes was the musically most successful group among the symphonic groups of the seventies. Their texts were in such a way integrated part of the music, that a dramatization of the contents was unnecessary and perhaps impossible. The musical expression was complete. Their fantasy and skill resulted in productions as "Close to the Edge" and "Tales from Topographic Oceans". The latter one is a double album containing four songs, one on each side of the LP. Other groups were for example Gentle Giant, Emerson Lake & Palmer and King Crimson. Gentle Giant played a well ¶çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff¹arranged type of music, often featuring acoustic instruments. The group was strongly influenced by renaissance music and English folk music, which is unique. You can't find neither predecessors nor successors in their very special genre. Emerson Lake & Palmer had a very strong character in keyboard phantom Keith Emerson, who musically dominated the group entirely. King Crimson was the most avantgarde group of symphony rock. Perhaps it's the group that most "deserve" the English name of symphony rock, progressive rock. Until 1977 the symphonic groups were the kings of the rock stage. The breakthrough of the punk music was a real defeat for the symphony rock. Suddenly it was unpopular to be a skilled musician. It was called snobbery, and the new way of measuring music skill was sweat and wildness. The level of ambition went close to zero, and the "rather-than-good" philosophy was ranked high. But this didn't mean, what many thought, the death of the symphony rock. It's true that most of the groups split up, but new bands were formed. A great example of this are Rush, that took the great step from hard rock to symphony rock. Celebrities like Genesis and Yes tackled the problem by searching their way towards other music styles. The symphony rock became more anonymous, marked by the ¶çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff¹critics. But it lived. The surroundings weren't uninfluenced by the symphony rock though. The dreamlike and beautiful feature was used by synth groups like Simple Minds; the mightiness and the instrumental skill continued its life in the hard rock, whose origin was almost the same as the symphony rock's. After night comes day though. Some years into the eighties the punk music died, and again ambition was creditable. The symphony rock saw its new dawn. The most outstanding of the new groups was Marillion, who released their debut album in 1983. During 1984 two other groups released records; Pallas and Twelfth Night. What these groups have in common is that they're strongly influenced by the heroes of the 70's. Today, in the time of MTV and rave parties, the symphony rock is totally defenseless. We're back to the simple style of music again, and it seems now like we'll have to wait for the trend to turn back to the dreamish and skillful again. Have patience! Ç02 ¶çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff¹A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO THE SYMPHONY ROCK Genesis: 'Selling England by the Pound' 'Nursery Cryme' Yes: 'Going for the One' 'Fragile' Gentle Giant: 'Freehand' 'The Power and the Glory' Jethro Tull: 'Minstrel in the Gallery' 'Broadsword and the Beast' Emerson Lake & Palmer: 'Brain Salad Surgery' 'Trilogy' King Crimson: 'In the Court of the Crimson King' 'In the Wake of Poseidon' ¶çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff¹Rush: '2112' 'Caress of Steel' Marillion: 'Script for a Jester's Tear' 'Fugazi' Pallas: 'The Sentinel' Twelfth Night: 'Live and Let Live' Mike Oldfield: 'Tubular Bells' 'Five Miles Out' Pink Floyd: 'The Dark Side of the Moon' 'Animals' ¶çedf,888,0f0,aaf,f8f,ff0,fff¹ The text was taken from the Swedish symphony rock magazine "Grendel" and was translated into English by Fugazi/Dead Guys. You can contact me for anything concerning symphony rock on this address: FUGAZI/DEAD GUYS Robin Forsberg Norrtullsgatan 37B, 3tr. S-826 37 Soederhamn SWEDEN Phone 0270/129 83 Ç03